Migrate CE4 to another host

Legacy Product Support
#1

How can I migrate my CE4 website to another hosting site. I copied all the files from my old host to my new host and would like to know what else needs to be edited to get my website to work again. Or am I going about this the wrong way? I edited all the php files to reflect the new website directory under “define( ‘TTG_HOOK’, '/home/”"/public_html/phplugins’ )" but that doesn’t work. So do I need to start all over again?
I will be eventually be upgrading to Backlight 3 but need my site up until I get around to that.

Thanks,
Philll

#2

what exactly is not working? Do you see any aspect of your site?
what’s your site url?
If your site is not there, do you know if the nameserver has been updated to point at your new host?

For CE4 phplugins you need to enter the server path to phplugins. That’s done in plugins.

#3

Basically, I switched from one hosting site to another, Godaddy to be specific. What I did was copy all the files from my old site under the “public_html folder” and then uploaded those files to my new host under the same path on my new host, “public_html folder” But when I goto http://nappyphotos.com/ttg-be/admin/ I get the error.
“Not Found The requested URL was not found on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.”

By server path phplugins are you referring to the phplugins folder and then editing the phplugins.php file within that folder? If so, when opened in Notepad++ I don’t see my older server path in there to replace it with my new server path.

#4

A guess: your url is still pointed to the nameservers of your old host. That might be why the url is not being found.
Do you recall doing anything with nameservers?

The server path is entered in the CE4 plugins. I don’t remember off the top of my head exactly where that field is, but I think it might be near the top? Site Info perhaps.

#5

I didn’t do anything with nameservers nor do I know what it is. The only changes I made where in these files:
about.php
contact.php
galleries.php
index.php
mobile.php
And I only edited the line that pointed to my old server:
define( ‘TTG_HOOK’, ‘/home/new_server/public_html/phplugins’ );
Perhaps, I have these files in the wrong directory or folder? I was looking for the orginial setup documents for CE4 but couldn’t find them online as perhaps when I look at those I can make sure the files are in the right folder structure.

#6

your site url likely still points at your old host, unless you obtained a new domain name when switching hosts.
Is nappyphotos.com new?

If not, you’ll need to get your site pointed to the new nameservers. Ask your host about it.

Editing those php files should have nothing to do with it since you need to set the server path in the plugins.

Contact your host about getting your url pointed at their servers.

#7

Yes, nappyphotos.com is a new domain on godaddy. The old one was phillchevalier.com and that was on hostmonster

#8

Did you change the url in the CE4 plugins, re-export, and upload?
Try that without worrying about phplugins just to see if a basic CE4 site will work.

It’s very possible that your new host is running a version of php that CE4 is not compatible with.

#9

It might be that the files you loaded on your new server are in the wrong location. Try to create a test file test.html with following content

<h1>test</h1>

Then try to access it using nappyphotos.com/test.html

#10

Can you point me in a direction as to where I can change the url in CE4 plugins as it’s been some years since I set it up and forgot. Any documents still available for CE4 setup?

As far as the host running the wrong version, it’s not b’c I did change that to php56 for CE4 on my site.

#11

Hi Daniel, I did have a test .html on my site before copying over CE4 so I know it works if I put it back so I’m in the right location, the root of public_html directory.

#12

The url setting is at the top in the Site Info control panel, under Website. A couple of sections below that (still in Site Info) is the area where you enter the server path to phplugins.

The server path can be found by going to yoursite.com/phplugins/path.php

CE4 documentation is no longer available.

#13

It might help if you can post a screen shot of the folder/file structure on the server. you can simply paste images (jpg, png) into a post.

#14

Good to know that the location is good. Next check the path as Rod pointed out.

Since your domain name changed, you would need to change this in all your php files as well!

But honestly, it might just easier to get everything going with Backlight.

#15

And depending on your set up, it may be easier to simply change the url and server path to phplugins (from you’re original post, you’re using phplugins I assume) in the Lightroom plugins, and then export and upload.

If you were using Publisher, then you would probably only need to export and upload Pages plus your gallery and autoindex templates. This way you wouldn’t need to edit index.php files or the contact, about, etc. files.
(you would need to change the API URL in the Publisher plugin)

But if you were using exported and uploaded galleries, you’ll have a lot of work ahead of you either editing all the gallery and autoindex index.php files manually or changing URLs and server paths in all your galleries and autoindexes and exporting and uploading them again.

If you were using phplugins to manage navigation, you would need to change the urls in your phplugins file.

As Daniel said, it might just be easier to get going in Backlight right away. If you have all your galleries organized in collections, it would be pretty easy to get everything back on line relatively quickly just using the default design settings. Then you could set about re-designing. And designing in Backlight is much, much, much easier than dealing with the Lightroom Web Module.

#16

Thanks for the support! As this was harder to make work, I decided to go ahead and just purchase Backlight3. So now I’m trying to get my site setup. The only problem I have now is that I want my site to look the same as I had it setup in CE4 but since my site is down I cannot view it to replicate it. Is their any way with the files and folder structure I have that I can possibly view it by opening a certain html file? Or would I be able to view it in Lightroom?
Thanks.

#17

You should be able to view your design in Lightroom’s web module just as you did when designing it, assuming you still have those web collections intact or you made web templates from them.

Viewing in Lightroom would probably be the easiest and most convenient.

Since you have php files (index.php, contact.php, etc) you can’t just open in a browser.

I suppose you could re-export Pages, for example. First disable all features that force the php files to be created rather than html. Those features were things like enabling phplugins, using shared resources, and maybe one or two other things.
Then you should be able to just double click on the html files and they should open in your default browser.

#18

Thank you again. I am now able to view the php files in a browser. Now the fun part, working on setting up my site. I must say Backlight3 is so much easier to navigate than the old CE4 as there is no lag as with Lightroom. I also purchase the Client Response and Cart so two new things to learn how to setup. I purchased CE4 back in 2016 and it was great back then and now you have just made it way better and easier…once you get over the learning curve, that is. Thanks for always providing great support as every support ticket I submitted was always answered and always helpful.

1 Like
#19

That’s what we like to hear! Thank you! And I’m glad you’re getting along well with Backlight.

#20

As a long time user, lurker you could say, this is the type of support that has made the product what it is. Sharing and solving.

3 Likes